Director Wendy Gillett has reached out to the Ventura Unified School District and together they are designing and launching after school STEM classes in areas of our community that often are underserved.

These classes are for middle school students, immersing them in core critical areas focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

Director of Expanded Learning at VUSD Lorelle Dawes has been tasked with building a network of after school programs to support kids of our community’s public schools, exposing students to high end opportunities and activities during the hours of 3:30 to 5:30pm.

“Our collaboration with the school district will provide rowing field trips for the STEM students to come to Lake Casitas, and offer no-cost year round participation in our rowing teams” says director Wendy Gillett. “Our goal is to remove the barriers that many disadvantaged students run into, so we can provide access to activities that open many doors and help students excel”.

USRowing gives a foundation for these classes, through their STEM TO STERN program. Casitas Rowing was chosen to be one of 25 clubs in the US to be supported and mentored through their STEM TO STERN program, providing a launching pad for us to grow. We are very grateful to be working with STEM TO STERN and appreciate the mentoring we receive.

Big thanks to the early adopters like Principal Carlos Cohen of DATA middle School bringing STEM classes to his community and offering this to after school students throughout the county.